Ripple’s XRP sees whale-sized exchange withdrawals as the price goes above $0.50

Ripple’s XRP once again approaches a potential rally, raising questions whether interest in the asset could be renewed. XRP expanded as Bitcoin (BTC) moved above $63,000, moving further away from recent lows.

Ripple’s XRP traded at $0.53, logging a weekly gain of more than 27%. For a short time, XPR broke to $0.56, on a monthly peak of trading volumes. Now, XRP trading accelerated, stabilizing around $1.5B in 24 hours. 

Also Read: Why is Ripple’s XRP up today? XRP surges 10% in 24 hours

The question remains whether XRP is capable of returning to a higher range and showing some development. Current analysis suggests XRP has the potential for manipulation, with only short rallies that do not find wider support. Despite this, XRP remains a prominent asset and a return to overall bullish moods may break the sideways trend. 

One of the drivers for the recent rally are signs of whale activity around XRP. Until recently, XRP was tracked for its regular unlocks from the Ripple Foundation escrow. The market is already reassured the Ripple Foundation has limited intentions to sell all its holdings. Recently, whale wallets were seen withdrawing XRP from exchanges, a move that may suggest accumulation. 

XRP is still a utility token, used for transactions through Ripple’s protocol. XRP is used for fees and burned, so despite the vast supply, the protocol has built-in scarcity. For now, XRP is still trading only 5.3% of its supply in 24 hours, and only 55% of the coins are in circulation. The rest are reserved for long-term growth and experiments on interbank transactions. 

Whale watchers noted several large-scale transactions taking away XRP from the Binance centralized exchange. Some of the transactions were valued at close to $20M.

Whale action has been spotted in the past, but has accelerated in July. Extreme predictions see XRP rallying especially hard at the end of the month, with the potential to reach $10 during a new altcoin bull cycle. However, those predictions are at the extreme end, while others expect a new drop to baseline levels and continued sideways trading. 

🚨 33,839,894 #XRP (17,835,456 USD) transferred from #Binance to unknown wallethttps://t.co/dnMQ6b16mN

— Whale Alert (@whale_alert) July 14, 2024

XRP activity suggests another market peak

The recent token turnover for XRP calls back to its activity and price levels in March and April. At that time, XRP held a higher range between $0.60 and $0.70. 

Recent data for coin turnover shows a marked acceleration, to 5.56% of the total supply. Whale action is adding to the more rapid pace. Some of the whale transactions have also held cryptic messages, suggesting XRP still has a bullish future. There are also signs of upward price action due to the effect of the “Ripple Army”, a still active community on social media and apparently, centralized exchanges. 

However, there are warnings the July rally may be short-lived. XRP has taken a long time to break out, helping to boost long positions. An eventual market correction may arrive to wipe out those long positions. 

Longs are on average more than 64% of all positions for major exchanges, suggesting the current price level for XRP is risky for attacks. Even a smaller price move down to $0.53 led to more than $300K in longs liquidation in the past 24 hours. In the case of a rapid correction scenario, extreme predictions see XRP returning to lows of $0.28.

Also Read: XRP price prediction 2024-2030: Is $1 coming soon?

In 2024, XRP has few options for usage. One of the main tools for XRP holders is staking through exchanges. Binance and Kraken are the most active hubs for staking XRP, adding to the presence of whales.

Kraken offers extremely high earnings for XRP, to the tune of 25% annualized. Recently, Bitrue also added XRP staking pools, with 7% APY and a minimum seven-day lockup period. 

The biggest advantage for Ripple’s XRP is the decision that XRP was not an unregistered security, and Ripple, Inc. will not have to pay a fine of $2B for its early token distribution. Ripple is still talking about its long-term goal of becoming the go-to solution for international banking. 

Cryptopolitan reporting by Hristina Vasileva